Carnival
Carnival
Signed Print
Bridget Riley
Screenprint, 2000
Signed Print Edition of 75
H 56cm x W 76cm
Critical Review
Carnival is, as the title suggests, a carnival of colours and shapes, which appear to dance across the picture surface. Released in 2000, this signed screen print is a limited edition of 75. Using just three colours: pink, orange and yellow, Riley creates an electric composition. Indeed, Riley’s enduring attention to the inner dynamic of a painting, coupled with her engagement with abstraction, has led to Riley’s works frequently being described in relation to music.
Colour in this series, like Riley’s other series, is declaratively interactive: each hue seems to change pitch and tone depending on its neighbours. Far removed from Riley’s monochromatic origins, Riley’s Lozenges work sees the abstract artist at her most confident with colour.
Of her work, Riley stated the viewer’s eye “should feel caressed and soothed, experience frictions and ruptures, glide and drift. One moment there will be nothing to look at and the next second the canvas seems to refill, to be crowded with visual events”.
